(Updated Feb. 20, 2022 below)

Prior to the arrival of Yahshua Anointed in the earliest part of the 1st century A.D., what was accepted as “religion” throughout the known world had its origins dating back to Babylonian pagan beliefs.  Much of these earlier beliefs were adopted by the Greeks with their god and goddess worship, which were woven into the culture surrounding the Mediterranean region, including Israel and surrounding countries.  The most famous of those Greek gods was Zeus, the “thunder god” and ruler of all the other Olympian gods in Greece.  The ministry of Yahshua and his message was in stark contrast to what had been passed down for many centuries.

Yahshua’s message of salvation was a radical departure from all other known teachings of that time and after his death and resurrection, his message was being accepted and believed throughout the word, as thousands of people began converting to this new religion.  The evidence of the growth of the church in the 1st century A.D. can be seen in the first chapters of the book of Acts, where Peter converted over 3,000 at once, then later he converted over 5,000 at once.  At this pace, it would just be a matter of time until Peter’s message of salvation, as a result of Yahshua’s sacrifice, would convert the entire world.

Acts 2:41–“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about THREE THOUSAND SOULS.“

Acts 4:4–Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about FIVE THOUSAND.”

In an earlier post, I described in much greater detail these events, which you can read here.  In order to thwart Peter’s success, the High Priest gave a new decree that from that moment forward, no person was ever allowed to speak or write the name Yahshua ever again.  Violators of this new decree would be met with death, so it was strictly enforced.  Nobody dared disobey this law, but nobody could deny the life, message and resurrection of Yahshua Anointed.  So, they had to write his name as Yeshu and speak that same name.  This began the evolution of how Yahshua’s name morphed into today’s “Jesus”.  Again, if you’re interested, I described that topic in great detail in another earlier post, here.

Prior to the new decree from the High Priest, nearly 100% of those who heard the Apostle’s message believed and were converted.  But already, in just a few short years, Paul and Barnabas were spreading this message, the audience was split 50/50, as described here:

Acts 14:1–“And it came to pass in Iconium, that they [Paul and Barnabas] went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.  ² But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.  ³ Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Master, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.  ⁴ But the multitude of the city was divided: and PART HELD WITH THE JEWS, AND PART WITH THE APOSTLES.”

The Jews–the people to whom the message of salvation was first delivered–were rejecting that message and deliberately trying to oppose it being spread any further.  Within mere decades of being eye-witnesses to the most amazing events that have ever happened on earth, an effort was underway to silence those who continued to preach the message of salvation.

In the book of John, Yahshua had an encounter with certain Greeks, who had heard of Yahshua’s fame and his miraculous deeds, so they wanted to see for themselves whether it was true or not.  The impact of John’s words are lost to most readers, as they don’t grasp the significance of what actually happened when they met.

John 12:20–“And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:  ²¹The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Yahshua.  ²² Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Yahshua.  ²³ And Yahshua answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.”

Skipping ahead to verse 28, we discover exactly HOW his name became glorified.  And keep in mind exactly WHO this verse is intended for–the Greeks who came to see Yahshua (the “son” of Zeus!) with their own eyes.

John 12:28–“Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.  ²⁹ The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that IT THUNDERED!: others said, An angel spake to him.”

Remember, the Greeks believed that the greatest god was Zeus, the god of thunder, so they came to Israel, not to meet Yahweh’s son.  Rather, they came to verify whether Zeus’s son had indeed arrived on earth in human form.  When they heard Yahweh’s booming voice from heaven and it sounded like thunder, they would have been 100% convinced that Yahshua was the actual son of Zeus!  What began as teaching the truth of Yahshua’s message was already fighting the pagan traditions that started taking over the church.

This influence became so dominant that John himself was excommunicated and disfellowshipped from the church.  THE Apostle who Yahshua referred to as the one that he loved, was suddenly and unceremoniously forbidden to attend, let alone preach in the church any more.  Where is this event cited?

3 John 8-11–“We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.  ⁹ I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, RECEIVETH US NOT.  ¹⁰ Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, NEITHER DOTH HE HIMSELF RECEIVE THE BRETHREN [referring to himself, in 3rd-person], and FORBIDDETH THEM THAT WOULD, and CASTETH THEM OUT OF THE CHURCH.  ¹¹ Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of Elohim: but he that doeth evil hath not seen Elohim.^“

John, arguably one of the top Apostles, was kicked out of the church that Yahshua established.  How could this happen?  And who was Diotrephes who took over?  Was this a part of the introduction of paganism from the moment that the Greeks met “Zeus’s son” in John 12 above…or, so they thought?

The name “Diotrephes”, Διοτρέφης, literally means “nourished by Jupiter”, nourished by Zeus, or foster-child of Zeus.  The god Jupiter was the chief god of the Romans, which is identical with the chief god Zeus, of Greek mythology.  In other words, the minister that took over the congregation in the 1st century A.D. was a person identified as nourished by Zeus.  He would have completely rejected any gospel that did not have Zeus mythology as its origin.  As a result, John himself wrote in his last few verses of his last book that his job of teaching in church had come to an end.  And it ended all because Greek mythology had twisted the message of Yahshua Anointed into an image of earlier pagan beliefs.  From that point forward, what churches began teaching as Yahshua’s message was nothing other than a revamped pagan belief, disguised as something new.

But, what about Paul?  Did he get kicked out of the church too?  Yes, and his removal involved whippings, beatings and imprisonment.  In contrast, John had it easy.  In fact, prior to having his name changed from Saul to Paul, he was the person whose primary responsibility was to seek those who were disobeying the High Priest’s law of discontinuing the use of the name Yahshua in any form and to punish them for their disobedience.

Once he was given his new mission, to preach the truth of the gospel throughout the gentile nations, he did it with the same passion as his earlier mission to punish those who were disobedient to the High Priest.  He was unashamed and unafraid to teach people of the importance of the one name by which we are saved.

Acts 2:21–And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name Yahshua shall be saved.“

Acts 4:12–“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.“

Paul would not allow the perversion of equating Yahweh’s son, Yahshua, with a pagan god Zeus or Jupiter.  He took his message right into the heart of the Greek empire’s churches and he let them have it with both barrels.  But no matter how logical he was or how he reasoned right from scripture, the Jews opposed him where he went.

Acts 17:2– ^“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,… v.5–“But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.”

Acts 18:4–“And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.”

But no matter how hard he tried, Paul’s message was met with opposition, and when he was preaching the gospel in Rome, this was the insult he gave them because of their stubbornness to the truth–

Acts 28:26–“Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:  ²⁷ For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

Paul was not one to mince words.  He accused them of following fables, of participating in hedonism and, my favorite, of being MORONS.

2 Pet. 1:16–“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Master Yahshua Anointed, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

2 Pet. 2:13–“And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you“

Rom. 1:22–“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,“.  And yes, the word “fools” comes from the Greek word “mōrainō” which literally is the root word “morons”.

It frustrated Paul to see the church, so soon after Yahshua’s ministry on earth, was abandoning his teachings and reintroducing paganism that existed for centuries earlier.  But not only was Paul being rejected for his message, he was also being rejected because the truth of what he was teaching was causing great economic harm to the businesses in the area that relied on paganism for their commerce.  THIS, they could not tolerate.

Acts 19:24–“For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;“  [They built their wealth on creating valuable silver objects of this pagan temple to the goddess Diana, whose image is featured above on this blog post.]

Verse 27–“So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.  ²⁸ And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”

Verse 30–“Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused: and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.“

The confusion arose from the sound, logical message that Paul delivered vs. the traditional pagan beliefs that existed for centuries before.  But, Paul was undeterred.  Eventually, his message resulted in him getting beaten and eventually thrown into prison in Rome.

And this was a good thing.  If Paul hadn’t been imprisoned in Rome, there’s a chance that we would no longer have 100% of the Bible passed down to us for the past two millennia.  While he was there, he requested that all of the parchments [scrolls containing all of the holy books of scripture] be delivered to him in Rome.  Had he not done this, when the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., they would have also destroyed all of those holy writings, thus losing forever the words that comprise our modern day New Testament portions of the Bible.

This moment is described in 2 Tim. 4:13, and in great detail in my earlier blog, here.

From approximately 60 A.D. until now, what has been taught as “christianity” is nothing other than a watered-down version of Babylonian, Greek and Roman mythology and paganism.  But since the Greeks were totally convinced that the person they met in Jerusalem was none other than the human son of Zeus, their dominant religion soon took over the congregations throughout the region and actual eye witnesses to Yahshua’s ministry were rejected as heretics to the truth.

If the Apostles themselves failed to maintain their positions within the early church, you now have a better understanding of why we are urged to be “workmen” in studying the Bible.  It doesn’t come easy, but the facts and truth can be known.

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Updated Feb. 20, 2022:

It never ceases to amaze me how a familiar passage that I’ve read hundreds of times can somehow reveal something new to me, as happened in this post while describing the stubbornness that Paul faced while trying to convince the Romans the error of their ways.  Specifically, it was a peculiar expression seen in Acts 28:27 with the use of “waxed gross”.  That is such an ambiguous term to identify those whose hearts were hardened to Paul’s message.  What does this expression mean in the original Greek language?

Here’s the expression in full context:

For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Each of the other failings are readily understandable.  Ears dull of hearing means they’re deaf.  Eyes that have closed means they’re blind.  So why didn’t Paul use a stronger expression regarding the heart?  It just so happens, he did!

These two words come from the original Hebrew expression שעווה ברוטו, which translated to Greek becomes the word epachunthE, literally meaning “is stoutened”.  Stoutened is derived from its root word “stout”.  This word’s definition resolves any ambiguity about Paul’s description of those stubborn hearts.  It literally means: firm, determined, obstinate or uncompromising.  Any of those English words could have been used rather than “waxed gross” because they each provide a more accurate picture of the human hearts that Paul was battling at the time.  The overall meaning isn’t lost to the reader, as the description of the Romans refusing to accept Paul’s message remains clear.  But this is just another moment where hidden gems are revealed through an ongoing progressive revelation of scripture.  Obviously, this isn’t an earth-shattering bombshell, but since all truth will be known (line upon line, precept upon precept), attention to detail, regardless of how small, matters.